11.26.2008

sarah park to be added to journalists memorial

Sarah Park, a popular, well-known reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, was only 29 when she died in a plane crash in 1957 while covering a tsunami on Oahu's North Shore. Next year, her name will be added to the Journalists Memorial in Washington D.C.: Star-Bulletin reporter killed on duty earns place of honor.

The Journalists Memorial honors reporters who have died covering a story. There are 1,898 names etched onto the glass walls of the memorial at the Newseum in Washington. Park's name will be added in ceremonies this spring, along with the names of journalists killed this year.

Park's short career included covering stories in Korea, India, China and Indonesia for the International News Service and Reuters. She also covered the Korean War from December 1952 to March 1953 and was blacklisted by a Soviet literary magazine during the Cold War.

It is believed that Park is the only Korean American whose name will be on the memorial. She was also likely the first Korean American journalist to cover a war and work for a news service and a metropolitan daily. She was definitely a pioneer whose career was cut way too short.